POUNDING MY CHEST

Self-Discipline is one of the greatest means to make people achieve the level of success they desire.  Self-Discipline is everything you know you should do and sometimes or most of the time these are the ones you don’t feel like doing.  It is like getting up in bed while you still want to sleep.  You get up right away when there is no choice because you are going to be late for work.  But it is harder to get up when you have all the time in the world to stay in bed apart from one hour allotted for exercise.  “Let just skip it”, the usual reaction.  I have so much respect with people who get the hang of doing fitness.  Sometimes I come across people jogging rigorously in the morning and I have the urge to look at them and say “Respect” while pounding my chest once.

But discipline is not only for fitness, military or prison.  It has to be a way of life.  It is equivalent to sacrifice.  Sacrifice is depriving oneself from comfort to gain the amount of what one desires for.  It is getting out form the bad habit and taking steps towards the right track and try to keep your feet in there.  It is hard most of the time.  But it is only hard when you get started and then you got used to it and it is not hard anymore.  And that is what you call achievement.  I have started and tried to keep more than one good habits over and over again.  Sometimes the good habit does not kick in that easy.  The habit breaks and start again.  Giving up is a dangerous practice.  It sucks more than when you played well and you are losing until its game over.  To me, it is rewarding to see a marathon runner who had finished the race even he has injured himself in the middle of race more than when you finished first and way more than giving up in the middle of the race. Try and try until you conquer the bad habit.  It is better to try and fail rather than not start at all.

O man, I wish this writing will not end as just a writing but a personal declaration that this has been in my mind and in my heart for a long time.  It is like a preliminary scoping of what I ought to do and the reason why I should do the good habits.  The problem with self-promises is that the contract never expires, no defects liability and damage insurance.  I can go on with life without doing any of those that I need to do and suffer the consequences later.  Freedom of choice.  It is much easier to have someone yelling in your face to do the task pronto. And that is the reason some people hire trainers and psychiatrists.  Some people shed a lot a money for boot camps, nutritionists etc.  Mothers are the best in discipline.  They have all the stamina in the world to nag you to keep going.  Finish your plate.  Brush your teeth.  Do your homework.  Tidy your bedroom. And on and on and on and on.

No man is an island.  We need one another to do what is right.  Self-help will fall short when you do it on your own.  It has to be in an interpersonal connection with those who have the same page as you are.  I know sometimes or most of the time It is hard to find even one person who can support you.  Nevertheless I should start giving support to others who try to finish their personal race in any way I can and in any way they want and take it from there hoping that it reciprocates.  Sometimes helping others is one way of helping you whatever that means.  But in that note, I believe happiness is in helping and not expecting something in return.  Maybe by doing good to others can build inspirations of helping myself.  Doing good things to others is a way of knowing that I have something respectful about me.  And by respecting myself, I should take care of myself.  Respecting yourself is the path to self-discipline.  I ought to have all the urge to punch my chest once and say to myself “RESPECT”.